Apt that it was goaltending coach Benoit Allaire making the proclamation Thursday morning.

Hours before Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final at the Garden, the Rangers still were not too far removed from franchise netminder Henrik Lundqvist spending the final 31:02 of Tuesday night’s Game 5 on the bench, pulled for backup Cam Talbot in a 7-4 loss to the Canadiens at the Bell Centre.

“I heard Benoit Allaire say when we walked in — tonight’s a big game,” head coach Alain Vigneault said. “So I think [Lundqvist] picked up on that. He’ll be fine.”

With the Rangers still holding a 3-2 edge in the best-of-seven, they remain one win away from reaching their first Stanley Cup final in 20 years. Yet for the second time this postseason, Lundqvist has to rebound from a performance that got him yanked from the ice, the other time being Game 6 in the first round against the Flyers.

“I expect him to play like he always does,” Vigneault said. “He’s a great goaltender. He strives when pressure is on. He knows that tonight is a big game.”

Following his benching in round one, Lundqvist came back and shut down the Flyers in a 2-1 Game 7 win at the Garden. As intense a competitor as there is on the Rangers, Lundqvist was already thinking about Game 6 soon after he was pulled after allowing four goals on 19 shots in the Bell Centre.

“I don’t think about the last game,” Lundqvist said. “I have to think about what happens now. That’s where my focus needs to be.”

The 32-year-old also was honest in assessing how he gets his game back to where it needs to be. It’s not easy.

“To reach your top level, it’s not like you snap your fingers and it’s going to be there every night,” Lundqvist said. “You have to work really hard to reach that and sometimes it’s hard.”

Lundqvist’s teammates don’t hesitate in the slightest when thinking about the confidence of their goaltender.

“I expect him to be the best player on the ice for us tonight,” center Derick Brassard said. “I think everyone knows that.”

One day after Vigneault vehemently defended a blindside headshot from his young defenseman John Moore — and two days after actually calling it “a late hit” — the coach went stone-faced when asked about Moore’s two-game suspension, which starts in Game 6.

“Does it matter?” he said. “I have no reaction.”

Moore was suspended for slamming into Montreal forward Dale Weise with 9:19 remaining in the third period of Game 5, receiving a five-minute elbowing major and a match penalty.

Although it was reported Weise had a concussion from the hit — despite the fact that he returned to the game — Montreal coach Michel Therrien denied it Thursday morning, though he admitted Weise is unable to play in Game 6.

Taking Moore’s spot in the lineup will be Raphael Diaz, who has played two games this postseason, the most recent being Game 4 of the second round against the Penguins.

“He’s a good defenseman in the sense that he’s not overly physical, but he’s got good instincts, he moves the puck well, he can help us on the power play,” Vigneault said. “He’s going to be all right. I mean, every time we’ve used him this year, he’s been good for us.”

Canadiens top-four defenseman Alexei Emelin was not on the ice at the morning skate, still presumably suffering from what coach Michel Therrien called “a body injury.” It seems as if Nathan Beauleiu and Francis Bouillon would both play on the back end.